1. Field of Invention
The field of this invention relates to musical instruments and, more particularly, to percussion drum instruments.
2. Prior Developments
Conventional drums commonly comprise of a hollow cylindrical shell having a circular drum skin stretched taut over one or both of its ends. A clamping ring is attached to the shell to exert axial clamping force on peripheral edge areas of each drum skin, thus to clamp the drum skin to the shell.
A vibrational motion of the drum's skin(s) resulting from the striking action of a drumstick on the outer surface of a drum skin produces the musical output of the drum. The vibrational motion creates a sound wave, which travels outwardly through out the interior of the drum.
Drum shells are commonly made of wood, resulting in a relatively heavy, dense and expensive construction. Conventional plastic shells are generally heavy gage constructions having relatively thick dense walls.
A drum is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,353,674 issued Oct. 11, 1994 to Volpp and entitled "Shell Resonant Membranophone". The drum is made from bent wood and has a bridge which is cut with a 45 degree bevel at an outer end to form a bearing edge for contact with the drum head membrane. However, manufacture of the drum includes producing a cylindrical member of layered wood, which is hard to form, gluing, special sand-papering to make it smooth, and special equipment to curve and form the wood, which is expensive.
Furthermore, the 45-degree bevel edge still composes a large surface area, which is contacting the head membrane. The head membrane is therefore deadened to vibration due to the large surface area of the beveled edge. The wood material making up the outer shell causes this deadened edge. This thickened surface area can not be compromised due to the lack of support the wood provides.